


A Link to the Past

by Cerusee



Series: Simple Gifts [2]
Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Gen, angff, arson (mentioned), several nice pairs of cufflinks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-13
Updated: 2017-12-13
Packaged: 2019-02-14 08:48:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13004127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cerusee/pseuds/Cerusee
Summary: Bruce has never been allowed to borrow (and promptly lose) the cufflinks that Jason gave Alfred every year for Father’s Day.  It’s only when Alfred refuses to lend him the ones he’s wearing on the drive to the Gotham Policeman’s Ball that Bruce realizes: he’s never seen that pair before.





	A Link to the Past

They were halfway to the party when Bruce realized he’d done it again, gone dashing out the door without checking every last detail of his appearance. “Oh for the love of—Alfred, I’m sorry, I’m going to need your cufflinks,” he said, chagrined. “I’ve forgotten mine again.”

Alfred hit the brakes, then eased the car into a u-turn, heading back towards the Manor.

Bruce blinked. “Alfred? What are we doing?”

“We’re returning home, Master Bruce, to retrieve your cufflinks. We can’t have you appearing at the Gotham Policeman’s Ball underdressed.”

Bruce sighed. “Can’t you just lend me yours? It’s not like you’re coming inside. No one will notice.”

“I’m sorry, sir, but these are off-limits.”

“For heaven’s sake, Alfred—”

“I’m afraid it’s the rules, sir. You may beg and borrow cufflinks from myself and from Master Dick and from Master Tim any time you’d like— _unless_ the set I’m wearing was given to me by Master Jason. He was quite clear on the subject, as you will recall.”

Bruce could recall.

 _“Nuh-uh, Bruce,”_ he could remember Jason saying, years earlier, when Jason had accompanied him to a event at the Gotham Museum of Fine Arts, and another iteration of this scenario had played out. Wagging his finger at Bruce admonishingly. _“I picked those out for Alfred, and if you take them, you’re just gonna lose them the way you always do. They’re off-limits.”_

But Alfred wasn’t wearing any of the sets Jason had given Alfred each year for Father’s Day. 

There were exactly four sets, and Bruce knew them all: the red buttons with the floral pattern; the polished mahogany domes; the cross-hatched silver squares; the little gold bats that had made Alfred’s mustache twitch when he’d lifted the lid to reveal them, to Jason’s clear delight.

Alfred’s cufflinks tonight were smooth rectangles of lapis lazuli set in silver. Bruce had never seen them before. “Are those...new?”

“Indeed, sir. I acquired them in June.” In the rearview mirror, Bruce could see Alfred’s lifted eyebrow.

“Oh,” Bruce said. There was a long, long pause. “How did he look?” he asked. He tried to conceal the yearning in his voice.

“Tired, sir.”

“I see.”

“He said something about having had a long week.”

Bruce tried to remember what had been going on in June. Two warehouses near the docks had mysteriously gone up in flames one week in June; evidence retrieved from the ruins suggested they’d housed large quantities of methamphetamines. They’d never identified the arsonist. The Red Hood _had_ been on the suspect list, but they’d had no proof that Jason was even in Gotham at the time, much less anything to definitively link him to the scene.

They still didn’t, but it was enough of a lead that Bruce could mention it in the file, just for the sake of completionism.

“He seemed well enough otherwise, though,” Alfred offered.

In Alfred-speak, that meant no visible injuries, no evidence of _hidden_ injuries, no obvious neurological conditions, and the person in question appeared to be eating, sleeping, _and_ bathing on an acceptable basis.

Bruce’s throat grew tight, and it was almost a struggle to reply. “That’s...good. I’m glad.”

The car fell silent for a little while.

“They’re—” Bruce’s voice caught in his throat.

The car pulled over to the side of the road, and Alfred put it in neutral. Looking straight ahead, he asked, “Would you have preferred I told you straight away, sir?”

 _Yes_ , Bruce thought. 

“No,” he said. “If he can come to you—” Bruce had to stop speaking for a minute. “I don’t want to...get in the way of that.”

Alfred put the car back in gear.

“They’re very nice, Alfred. Jason always had a good eye.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Pass that along?”

“Yes, sir.”

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a comment on Fathers’ Day by odd_izzy.


End file.
